


Keeping the Flame

by Lady_Ganesh



Category: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Genre: Collection: Purimgifts Day 3, Future Fic, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-03-12
Updated: 2011-03-12
Packaged: 2017-10-16 21:43:15
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 741
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/169648
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lady_Ganesh/pseuds/Lady_Ganesh
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Ursa has visitors. Thanks to Gryphonsegg for betaing!</p>
            </blockquote>





	Keeping the Flame

**Author's Note:**

  * For [beckyh2112](https://archiveofourown.org/users/beckyh2112/gifts).



The tea shop was the kind of place Iroh would have liked: quiet and warm, with dozens of pleasant smells in the air. It was the one good thing they'd found in this little podunk town, where everyone was gossipy and frustrated and probably up to horrible things behind each other's backs.

"I don't know why we're doing this anyway," Toph grumbled as they walked in. "Send the _girls_ off on some wild goose chase while they're negotiating the fate of the--"

"Did you _want_ to negotiate?" Katara asked. "Hours sitting in stuffy rooms with people who think they're ten times more important than they actually are?"

Toph considered that. "Yeah," she said. "Maybe not."

"And besides, Mai's probably doing most of the negotiating anyway."

 _That_ was true enough. She could think rings around Zuko. "Then Zuko should've come with us."

Katara sighed. "He's the Fire Lord now, he's supposed to be there."

"So? He never--" Whatever she was thinking was lost. Katara had gone completely still, aside from her heartbeat, which was loud and fast. "Katara?" She focused on the rest of the room; two men near the door, a woman at the back. None seemed to be holding any kind of weapon. "Katara, what's--"

"She looks just like her," Katara hissed.

"Hello," Toph snapped. "Blind?"

Katara was getting up. "Lady Ursa," she said, and Toph felt the teapot hit the floor and shatter.

 

Ursa brewed a good cup of tea. She didn't smell much like her kids, but Toph could hear the similarity to Azula's voice.

"And my daughter?" Her voice was steadier than her heart. "There have been many rumors, but--"

"She's ... not well," Katara said.

"Crazy," Toph corrected. "Don't coddle her."

"I'm not trying to coddle her!" Katara said, as if she were shocked by the very thought. Katara hardly said _anything_ that wasn't carefully wrapped in three layers of wool.

"She coddles everyone," Toph told Ursa. "Don't take it personally."

"So she's...."

"She's imprisoned," Katara said, her voice low. "Ty Lee visits her sometimes, but she won't talk to her. She tried to throw something at Mai the last time she went down."

"She had friends, then," Ursa said quietly. "I always worried about that." Her hands tapped against the tabletop, not enough to be audible, a small, steady drumbeat on the surface. "If I had been there, perhaps--"

"Some people can't be fixed." Toph took another gulp of tea. It was pretty good, almost as good as what Iroh brewed.

"If you come back," Katara said carefully, "maybe you can--"

"I doubt it," Ursa said. "She never listened to me then. Why should she, after I abandoned her? After the years I've spent here."

"My mother...she died protecting me," Katara said. "I would've given anything to see her again. It wouldn't matter."

Toph got up and shoved her chair back. "I'm getting some fresh air," she announced. "Call me when you've made _some_ kind of decision."

She could hear Katara mumbling an apology as she walked away. Toph ignored it.

Outside, the air was clear and crisp, and the boots of the people passing by squelshed in the mud. Toph decided to keep herself busy.

She'd half-finished a mud sculpture of Zuko when Katara and Ursa came back out. "How is it?" she asked Katara. "I'm trying to work on the features, but I've never been good with the subtle bits."

"It's...not bad," Katara said, and she wasn't lying. "It's no worse than Sokka's paintings." She reached out and adjusted Zuko's cheek.

"Not much of a compliment, Sunshine," Toph replied.

Ursa had stopped. "It looks like him? I've seen drawings, but--" She took a thick, struggling breath. "What about Azula?"

Toph searched her memory. "I only met her a couple of times," she said. "And she was trying to kill us."

"I can help," Katara said, shaking the mud off her fingers. "And she looks like her mother. Come on."

Ursa seemed pleased when they were finished, though Toph could tell from Katara's tone they weren't going to go into the sculpture business any time soon. "So you'll come back?" Katara asked.

"My exile was supposed to last for life," she said. "I did...things that can't be forgiven."

"You're alive," Katara said, stepping forward. "Your children are alive, and they need you."

It was a long wait, but Toph finally felt Ursa smile.

"You know," she said, "my grandfather was the Avatar."


End file.
